Does my voice ever leave my Mac?

No. Dictation and transcription run on-device, so your audio stays on your machine. The only outbound request is the optional AI cleanup, which sends text, not audio, to the provider whose key you supply.

Does WhisprDesk collect telemetry or require an account?

No. There is no account, no sign-in, and no analytics or telemetry.

Is it suitable for confidential material?

On-device processing means your audio is not uploaded and there is no server-side copy, which is why it suits sensitive notes and confidential work. You remain responsible for how you store the resulting text.

Private dictation for Mac

Private dictation means your voice is turned into text on your own device instead of on a company's servers. WhisprDesk is built this way: live dictation and audio transcription run on your Mac using Whisper or NVIDIA Parakeet, so the audio never leaves your machine. There is no account to create and no telemetry sent back, which removes the usual places a dictation tool could collect or leak what you say. That matters for anyone who dictates sensitive material, from personal notes to work that is under confidentiality. Optional AI cleanup is opt-in and uses your own API key, so even that step stays under your control. WhisprDesk runs on Apple Silicon, macOS 12 and later, and is launching soon.

What “private” actually means here

Privacy claims are easy to make and hard to verify, so it helps to be concrete. WhisprDesk processes your speech on-device: the model runs on your Mac, the audio is not uploaded, there is no account, and the app sends no telemetry. There is no server-side copy of your voice because your voice never goes to a server.

What WhisprDesk does not collect

WhisprDesk has no sign-in and no analytics. It does not create an account, does not phone home with usage data, and does not upload your audio. The only outbound request is one you trigger: the optional AI cleanup, which sends text (not audio) directly to the AI provider whose key you supply.

Live dictation and file transcription, both local

Both ways you use your voice stay on the device. Live, system-wide dictation lets you speak into the app you are using, and audio-file transcription turns a recording into text. Both run locally with Whisper or NVIDIA Parakeet.

Optional AI cleanup stays opt-in

If you want an AI model to tidy or reformat the text, that is a choice you make per use, with your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google key. It is never required, and the dictation itself never depends on it.

Frequently asked questions

Does my voice ever leave my Mac?: No. Dictation and transcription run on-device, so your audio stays on your machine. The only outbound request is the optional AI cleanup, which sends text, not audio, to the provider whose key you supply.
Does WhisprDesk collect telemetry or require an account?: No. There is no account, no sign-in, and no analytics or telemetry.
Is it suitable for confidential material?: On-device processing means your audio is not uploaded and there is no server-side copy, which is why it suits sensitive notes and confidential work. You remain responsible for how you store the resulting text.